A wealthy property developer has been jailed for 14 months for contempt of court in relation to his divorce settlement.

John Hart, 83, was ordered to hand over £3.5m of his £9.4m wealth to his ex-wife, former flight attendant Karen Hart, as well as his shares in company Drakestown Properties Limited – two estates of industrial units in the West Midlands.

The shares, which amounted to a “substantial part of the wealth” involved in the June 2015 divorce settlement – were transferred, making Karen Hart the owner of the company.

The judge, Stephen Wildblood QC, said Hart had “done his utmost to frustrate her ability to run it efficiently and effectively” as he “bitterly resents” that the company had been transferred to his former wife.

After delaying the transfer of the company, Hart and his staff “stripped out” all the management records of the company, leaving behind only two bank statements and a collection of licences and leases, the judge said.

Hart was ordered on two occasions, in February and July 2016, to provide information to his ex-wife, but failed to do so.

Sentencing Hart at Bristol magistrates’ court, Judge Wildblood found he had acted in “serious contempt” of the orders and his undertaking from the original divorce settlement.

Wildblood jailed Hart for 14 months, telling him: “Mr Hart, so serious are these acts of contempt that only a sentence of imprisonment is justified.

“Having reflected on the contempt that you have committed I have concluded that a financial penalty would be wholly inadequate. Orders of the court and the rule of law must be observed.”

Wildblood said he and Karen Hart had made “every effort” to avoid having to bring Hart’s contempt to “this crisis point”.

“This is a man who has received repeated warnings already that he must comply with court orders and he has chosen, repeatedly, not to do so,” he said.

Hart’s contempt has been “motivated by a wish to demonstrate his resentment against Ms Hart about the financial orders that were made in these proceedings in her favour,” Wildblood told the court.

He described Hart’s breaches as “persistent” and “damaging” and said he had seen “no remorse at all from him”.

“A prison sentence will have a very marked effect on him,” Wildblood said.

“Mr Hart is now aged 83 and nobody wants to see a man of that age going to prison unless it is genuinely necessary.

“Mr Hart has been a successful businessman and has contributed to society through the businesses that he has run and the employment that he has provided for others.

“The effect of these proceedings is that Mr Hart has not only lost some of the money which he holds so dear, but he has also experienced the loss of his relationship with his former wife and children.”

Hart, who has agreed to pay his ex-wife’s legal costs of about £100,000, also suffers from ill-health.

Wildblood described the proceedings as “unnecessarily protracted” and said they had placed an “immense burden on limited public funds”.

Representing Hart, Grant Armstrong said: “He is a man of good character – exemplary character – who has demonstrated the fact that one can rise from running effectively the market stall to being a man of considerable wealth at the time when he met his wife.”

Speaking after the case, specialist family and divorce lawyer Sarah Balfour, of Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth, said Karen Hart had attended court with “a heavy heart”.

“She has behaved in an exemplary fashion in conducting the proceedings which were extraordinarily difficult, lengthy and costly due to the approach of Mr Hart,” she said.